[A major international research project reveals how citizens here view the effectiveness of our democratic institutions. HINT: It ain't a pretty picture. *RON*]

André Blais & Filip Kostelka, Policy Options, 19 October 2016

With the debate around our electoral system still in full swing, the time is ripe to explore how Canadians perceive the performance of our democratic institutions. In a major international research project focused in Canada on citizens in Quebec and Ontario, we found that the public is anxious for democratic reform at the national and provincial levels.

But how can we measure the quality of democracy in Canada? One way is to assess how well fundamental democratic principles work in practice. In a democracy, voters should be able to sanction politicians for their performance in office, and politicians should care about what voters think and care about. When running for office, politicians should propose distinct policy…

Click here to view the original article.["The government is well on its way to meeting -- or beating -- the $16.6 million it spent on advertising leading up to the 2013 election... Campbell banned non-essential government advertising in the four months prior to voting day... In the two-week period prior to the writ dropping in April 2009, the government issued nine news releases. What a difference four years makes." *RON*]Dermod Travis, Huffington Post, 18 October 2016

Mute them, channel surf, hide them all you want, but there's no escaping them.

The B.C. government is in the midst of saturating television shows and social media news feeds in the province with a multimillion-dollar back-patting advertising campaign in advance of the 2017 election.

The B.C. Liberal party -- who clearly have money to burn -- is getting in on the act as well with mood-setting political ads.

Can't fault them. They did raise the funds, one $10,000 cheque at a time.

Click here to view the original article.[Note also that this poll intentionally included a large portion of people who describe themselves as unlikely to vote. Nearly one in four young Americans said "they would rather have a giant meteor destroy the Earth than see Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the White House." *RON*]By Scott Malone, Reuters, 19 October 2016
Young Americans are so dissatisfied with their choices in this presidential election that nearly one in four told an opinion poll they would rather have a giant meteor destroy the Earth than see Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the White House.

The tongue-in-cheek question was intended to gauge young Americans' level of unhappiness about their choices in the Nov. 8 election, said Joshua Dyck, co-director of UMass Lowell’s Center for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll alongside Odyssey, a social media platform.

The choice alluded to the Twitter hashtag "#GiantMeteor2016," a reference to an imagin…

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday held auditor Ernst & Young, and two of its partners accountable for missing for more than four years what it said was a “major accounting fraud.”

The SEC said that if EY and its partners had followed auditing standards they would have likely uncovered the fraudulent scheme at Weatherford International WFT, -1.06% as early as 2007. The lead EY audit partner at Weatherford, Craig Fronckiewicz, and former tax partner Sarah Adams, have also been suspended from practicing as public …

Summary: The Chapman University Survey reveals American’s top fears. Many of them are exaggerated; some are delusional, most are influenced by the sea of propaganda that blankets America. Here we see one reason why the reform of America is so difficult.

Just two years ago only four in 10 British Columbians had even heard of the Site C dam. Now, the project — one of the most expensive and environmentally destructive in B.C.’s history — is making international headlines.

With construction ramping up, the high cost of the Site C dam is becoming more visible, and not just on the landscape.

Residents are being forcibly removed from their land. More than 100 kilometres of river valley — much of it agricultural land — is slated for flooding. Independent review processes, meant to ensure the project serves the public interest, have beencircumvented and indigenous rights have been trampled.